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Friday, April 8, 2011

Review: Nerf Dart Tag Sharp shot 2 Player Starter Pack

Oooh looky here- 2 player Starter Pack from Amazon.

A week ago we posted the great news regarding Amazon.com and their willingness to ship Nerf to Australia. Well as always, we did it ourselves to prove that it's true and lo' and behold, today we've unpacked ourselves a Dart Tag 2 Player Starter Pack, fresh from Amazon in the US to our wondrous lil' town in Australia.

The Sharpshot was the only Dart Tag blaster we didn't have, so we were definitely looking forward to this delivery..

The 2 Player Starter pack comes with two Sharp Shots, two "training" vests (one orange one blue), 8 dart tag darts and two pairs of vision gear eyewear- which are the same as the older Dart tag eyewear (vs the new 2011 model)

2 Player Starter kit back of the box

The packaging on these Dart Tag blasters is very inviting.. actually makes you want to sit there and read every little detail and you definitely want to be a part of a Dart Tag team:) A good scattering of races to show ethnic diversity- how very modern of you Nerf:)

Vests in the box

Packaging as you can see is wire tie/paper string free- just some cardboard to hold everything in place. They vests though are in plastic bags.

Blasters and eyewear

The training vests

The two vests that come in the 2 Player Starter pack are quite generous in size- they would fit most adults with little problem, other than the neck hole, which I found a tad tight around my rather large head:P They're quite shapeless as well and made of similar sports mesh to basketball shorts/tank tops on the back, and the fuzz stuff on the front that velcro darts stick to with ease.

They're not as attractive as the actual jerseys, but I guess they are called "training" vests because the whole surface on the front is the fuzz stuff/felt, vs the jerseys which have small pads that require more accuracy to hit.

The two Sharpshots on the back of the vests

The Sharpshots themselves look fantastic and feel good in the hand. They're quite streamlined and are of course only single shot blasters, with similar cocking mechanisms to the Maverick or Scout but have ammo storage in front of the blaster for 3 more spare darts. The pack comes with 8 velcro dart tag darts so all holds are filled:)

Close up of the Sharpshot. Nice.

Springloaded cocking mechanism pushed back

Performancewise, the Sharpshots are pretty weak to be honest. Given it's a single shot blaster where the darts are inserted down the barrel,you'd be better off with a Nitefinder for ranges (unless it's part of the rules to only use Dart Tag blasters) and performance. I found the Sharpshots pretty ordinary out of the box and I wouldn't like to be the guy on the team who's only packing one of these, unless he's the runner with ridiculous amounts of cover from the rest of the team.

Compared to the other three blasters in the new Dart Tag line, the Sharpshot just doesn't impress. That being said, word has it they're quite well suited for mods, and they DO look great and feel good to use, so it might be still worth getting them anyway and doing what you gotta do...

Against a Speedload 6.

This starter pack is pretty decent as far as bang for your buck, but I was disappointed with the Sharpshot's performances. That being said, they look fantastic, are well made, feel good in hand, and partial to mods if that's your thing so I'd still suggest you check 'em out. I wouldn't rely on a Sharpshot alone unless you're REALLY quick on your feet or have decent backup (and trust!) in the rest of your crew:)

I picked this pack up for under 30 bucks on Amazon.com; with shipping it was closer to 50 but then that's probably what it'd be in stores here anyway.

11 comments:

Basic modification to the sharp shots really improve their performance. The issue in the sharp shot is that the O-ring does not make an airtight seal, and a ton of air is lost each shot. Simply opening up the blaster, finding the O-ring and wrapping it in a tiny layer of electrical tape or strong duct tape and putting the blaster back together gets it another 15 feet. It doesn't require any drilling, cutting, or anything. (Taking out Air Restrictor adds another 10 as well.)

I'm sure you're hesitant to modify the sharp shots after the long wait for them, but it's really worth giving it a shot.

One thing that I can give the Sharp Shot props for is the design of its muzzle. The deep concave shape makes it very quick and easy to reload. There's no doubt in my mind that this was intentional as well. Simply because of that feature alone the Sharp Shot is shaping up to be one of my favorite single shot blasters.

^AnonymousI see you are a troll. It's actually kind of funny reading your post. I already know you are probably 11 with no job. Also, you probably don't have the time to go read the About UT or the FAQ. I understand you must be busy with all the soccer games your mom drives you to. Anyway, Pocket does have a job and I don't believe he fantasizes over them. At least he's not the one sitting over his keyboard writing hate comments on awesome blogs.

Aahhh... Now if only they would come out with a twelve shot internal clipped longshot with one of these integrated... 11 year old, I got a year over you and am currently taking 9th grade classes and have all the right to fantisize over anything I could design myself easily.

I was disappointed to find the Sharp Shot quite underwhelming as well... but then again, that's what I have a Speedload 6 for! The single-shot pistol is simple, compact, and never jams, and as such, it makes an ideal backup. (Also, in the Sharp Shot's defense, the auto-return spring on its slide is pleasingly snappy!)

Pocket. I know you don't like to mod but I highly reccomend you take 10 minutes and have a go at one of your Sharp Shots. I just increased the range from 6m to 11m and I didn't even cut/drill anything. The air restrictor is still in there.All you need is a srewdriver, a little E-Tape, a spare Mav or LSFG spring and 10 minutes of your time.Open it up, tape over the small hole in the barrel, add a layer of tape under the O ring and add the second spring to the stock one and put it back together. Simple as that.

A toy blaster resource; from a kidult's perspective living in an Australian inner city apartment. Focusing on out- of- the- box foam dart, laser tag and water guns with the odd two player co-op game thrown in for good measure:)